mass

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. A unified body of matter with no specific shape: a mass of clay.

n. A grouping of individual parts or elements that compose a unified body of unspecified size or quantity: "Take mankind in mass, and for the most part, they seem a mob of unnecessary duplicates” ( Herman Melville).

n. A large but nonspecific amount or number: a mass of bruises.

n. A lump or aggregate of coherent material: a cancerous mass.

n. The principal part; the majority: the mass of the continent.

n. The physical volume or bulk of a solid body.

n. Physics A property of matter equal to the measure of an object's resistance to changes in either the speed or direction of its motion. The mass of an object is not dependent on gravity and therefore is different from but proportional to its weight.

n. An area of unified light, shade, or color in a painting.

n. Pharmacology A thick, pasty mixture containing drugs from which pills are formed.

adj. Of, relating to, characteristic of, directed at, or attended by a large number of people: mass education; mass communication.

adj. Done or carried out on a large scale: mass production.

adj. Total; complete: The mass result is impressive.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A quantity of matter cohering together so as to make one body, or an aggregation of particles or things which collectively make one body or quantity, usually of considerable size; as, a mass of ore, metal, sand, or water.

n. A large quantity; a sum.

n. Bulk; magnitude; body; size.

n. The principal part; the main body.

n. The quantity of matter which a body contains, irrespective of its bulk or volume. It is one of four fundamental properties of matter. It is measured in kilograms in the SI system of measurement.

n. A medicinal substance made into a cohesive, homogeneous lump, of consistency suitable for making pills; as, blue mass.

n. A palpable or visible abnormal globular structure; a tumor.

n. Excess body weight, especially in the form of muscle hypertrophy.

n. A large body of individuals, especially persons.

n. The lower classes of persons.

v. To form or collect into a mass; to form into a collective body; to bring together into masses; to assemble.

v. To have a certain mass.

adj. Involving a mass of things; cencerning a large quantity or number.

adj. Involving a mass of people; of, for, or by the masses.

n. The Eucharist, now especially in Roman Catholicism.

n. Celebration of the Eucharist.

n. The sacrament of the Eucharist.

n. A musical setting of parts of the mass.

v. To celebrate mass.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. The sacrifice in the sacrament of the Eucharist, or the consecration and oblation of the host.

n. The portions of the Mass usually set to music, considered as a musical composition; -- namely, the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Credo, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei, besides sometimes an Offertory and the Benedictus.

n. A quantity of matter cohering together so as to make one body, or an aggregation of particles or things which collectively make one body or quantity, usually of considerable size.

n. A medicinal substance made into a cohesive, homogeneous lump, of consistency suitable for making pills.

n. A large quantity; a sum.

n. Bulk; magnitude; body; size.

n. The principal part; the main body.

n. The quantity of matter which a body contains, irrespective of its bulk or volume.

intransitive v. To celebrate Mass.

transitive v. To form or collect into a mass; to form into a collective body; to bring together into masses; to assemble.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

To celebrate mass.

To form into a mass; collect into masses; assemble in one body or in close conjunction: as, to mass troops at a certain place; to mass the points of an argument.

To strengthen, as a building for the purpose of fortification.

To collect in masses; assemble in groups or in force.

n. The celebration of the Lord's Supper or eucharist.

n. The office for the celebration of the eucharist; the liturgy.

n. The sacrament of the eucharist or holy communion.

n. A musical setting of certain parts of the Roman Catholic liturgy, also of corresponding parts of the Anglican liturgy.

n. Any mass where only the priest communicates, especially such a mass celebrated in a private oratory.

n. A body of coherent matter; a lump, particularly a large or unformed lump: as, a mass of iron or lead; a mass of flesh; a mass of rock.

n. An assemblage or collection of incoherent particles or things; an agglomeration; a congeries; hence, amount or number in general: as, a mass of sand; a mass of foliage, of troops, etc.

n. The bulk or greater part of anything; the chief portion; the main body.

n. Bulk in general; magnitude; massiveness.

n. The quantity of any portion of matter as expressed in pounds or grams, and measured on an ordinary balance with the proper reduction for the buoyancy of the atmosphere; otherwise, the relative inertia, or power in reaction, of a body.

n. In entomology, the terminal joints collectively of an antenna when they are enlarged and closely appressed to each other, forming a clava or club.

n. A large bunch of strung beads (12 small bunches fastened together).

n. See mas.

n. In pharmacy, a preparation of thick, pasty consistency with which is incorporated some active medicinal substance: the mass is made up into pills of definite size and weight for administration.

n. In the fine arts, any large and simple expanse of form, light, shade, or color, in which the details of a composition arrange themselves.

n. In electrochemistry, the concentration of that fraction of the electrolyte which, at the given dilution, is dissociated into ions, and is therefore capable of carrying the electric current.

n. the property of a body that causes it to have weight in a gravitational field

n. an ill-structured collection of similar things (objects or people)

n. (Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Churches) the celebration of the Eucharist

n. (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent

n. a sequence of prayers constituting the Christian Eucharistic rite

v. join together into a mass or collect or form a mass

n. the common people generally

n. a musical setting for a Mass

Etymologies

Middle English masse, from Old French, from Latin massa, from Greek māza, maza; see mag- in Indo-European roots.

(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

In late Middle English (circa 1400) as masse in the sense of "lump, quantity of matter", from Anglo-Norman masse, in Old French attested from the 11th century, via late Latin massa ("lump, dough"), from Ancient Greek μᾶζα (maza, "barley-cake, lump (of dough)"). The Greek noun is derived from the verb μάσσω (mássō, "to knead"), ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European *mag'- (“to oil, knead”). The sense of "a large number or quantity" arises circa 1580. The scientific sense is from 1704, due to Isaac Newton. (Wiktionary)

From Middle English masse, from Old English mæsse ("the mass, church festival"), from Vulgar Latin *messa, from Late Latin missa, noun use of feminine past participle of classical Latin mittere ("to send"). Compare Dutch mis ("mass"), German Messe ("mass"), Danish messe ("mass"), Icelandic messa ("mass"). More at mission. (Wiktionary)

Examples

(Force) = (gravitational mass) × (intensity of the gravitational field), where the gravitational mass is likewise a characteristic constant for the body.

"Finally, as your excellence wishes to know what we retain in our churches of the ceremonies of the mass, I would inform your excellence, that the mass is entirely abolished, _except when are persons present_ who wish to receive the Lord's Supper;" [Note 37] that is, we have entirely abolished private masses; at which, as it is well known, no one communed but the priest himself, but retain the _public mass_ at communion seasons.

What the man might mean by the priest and the hunting-mass I knew not then, but heard after, that when a noble will go forth hunting, the service which they call the mass is shortened to the utmost, and the priest that can say it more speedily than his brethren is best esteemed.